BGA Council Meeting 2022-03-10

Held at: ZOOM conference call

Meeting started: 19:30

Present:

• Andrew Ambrose-Thurman (AAT)
• Mohammed Amin (MA)
• Toby Manning (TM)
• Peter Rootham-Smith (PRS)
• Stephen Tweedie (ST)
• Richard Wheeldon (RW) (joined the call at the start of item 5)
• Colin Williams (CW)

Note - actions raised during this meeting and action updates are recorded on the outstanding actions list rather than directly in these minutes

1) Apologies.

There were no apologies for absence.

2) Previous minutes.

The minutes of 20/1 and 28/2 were accepted as accurate.

3) EGF EGM - Brief Update

TM informed Council of what happened at the recent EGM, which had been communicated to members via the newsfeed. There was a discussion as to whether the EGM was held in a constitutional manner, but as it was unclear exactly what Lorenz had done to advertise the meeting this could not be verified either way.

It was agreed that we did not want to host the two events (PairGo and Student championship) that are being moved from Russia.

TM was reminded of an action to request the EGF to hold future meetings via ZOOM, in a time-bounded manner. This is becoming urgent as the EGC approaches this summer.

4) Reports.

Presidents Report - TM talked the meeting through his report. We have 8 people in the European Youth championship in Prague. TM reported on the number and quality of comments received on the governance proposals, and that the committee will be amending the Articles and Code of Conduct accordingly.

A discussion was held on how to handle the moderation of individuals on GoTalk. It was suggested that decisions on the length of moderation should be left to the appointed moderators, but with guidance from Council where they wished to give it.

Tournaments Report - It is pleasing to see the number of tournaments increasing again. When discussing the Congress it was agreed that in order to hold even an informal 9*9 event on the Saturday evening we would need to find a volunteer to run it.

It was agreed that the PairGo event this year would be held in the LGC, and that Council would continue to look for a new organiser for future years.

CW will be calling at the Letchworth Settlement tomorrow to check it as a likely location for the Candidates this year. With the estimate of £450 we have at the moment Council were happy for this to proceed.

Technical Report - ST informed the Council on the recent progress in understanding the challenges and prioritising the work items. Two task tracking products are under investigation for the use of all committees and Council as a while.

The relationship between the Technical and Online Committees was discussed. CW will retain the Online Committee and look again at the remit to avoid overlaps, with the possibility of closing down the committee if no longer needed. It was agreed that the Technical Committee should be called the Technology Committee, and the Online committee the Online Go committee.

There was a discussion about the policy of whether or not members must have an e-mail address. It was agreed by a vote that we would accept members without e-mail addresses, on the basis that they accept that they may miss some BGA communications. The BGA will use e-mail as the formal communication method, and may use others (such as the website and news feed) but are not obligated to do so.

Clubs & Membership Report - Little to report this month. Loan equipment is on its way to the Hackney club. AAT will confirm to CW what other clubs require equipment, and their contact details. The BGA agreed to acquire another 250 give-away sets, alongside another 250 for the Durham club.

Publications - It was agreed that the news item on the Ukraine decision would be the basis of the report in the upcoming BGJ, along with the news that all Russian competitors had withdrawn from the Youth Championship. It was noted that CW had until the end of March to produce the new 'BGA Page' for the next BGJ.

5) GoMagic Sponsorship.

The sponsorship deal with GoMagic, a Russian based organisation, who have announced they are against the invasion of Ukraine, was discussed. Given the rapidly changing situation around banking sanctions it is uncertain whether or not BGA members could pay GoMagic at this time. On that basis it was agreed by vote that we will contact them to commend their recent statements, but defer the sponsorship arrangement until at least the next but one issue of the BGJ.

This led on to a wider-ranging discussion on the BGA policy over entrants to BGA run events. It was agreed by a vote that the BGA will follow EGF rules in respect of Russian entrants to BGA run tournaments.

6) Candidates entry rules

A request had been made to allow in an individual who has not yet met the qualifying standard. Council has the right to do this in exceptional circumstances.

With the Candidates event being later than normal in 2022 Council agreed that it made sense to extend the qualification deadline for 2022 until Saturday May 7th (which brings the BGA Congress and the Not the London Open) into play.

7) BGA Kit Proposal

The revised paper was presented and discussed. The proposal for three caches of tournament kit was agreed. The idea of a general refresh of tournament kit over time was seen as desirable, especially to bring about standardisation and consistency of kit. CW took an action to come back with a firmer proposal for kit purchase.

8) AGM Date

It was agreed that the AGM would be on May 26th, and that this should be announced in the next few days.

9) Review of Actions

The outstanding action list was reviewed and updated.

10) AOB

No AOB was raised.

11) Next meeting

CW to issue a Doodle for the next meeting for a fortnight before the AGM.

The meeting closed at 22:10